When I first started making AMVs, I made it a point to read through the guides on this site, especially the Everything A/V guide. I even printed out pages of it to bring with me to work to scan over during breaks. That's how badly I wanted to understand the ins and outs of pre and post-production, and to figure this stuff out on my own instead of having to run to the forums with every time I wasn't sure about how to do something.

Like a lot of newcomers to the hobby, I had a hard time understanding interlacing methods and how to restore progressive frames. Still, I downloaded the AMVApp and followed the guides, made my project files, didn't master Avisynth or Virtualdub but came around to a basic understanding of what they could do for me, etc. My first two videos (made in 2009) are plagued by technical problems and I wish I still had the original scripts I used for them so I could look them over now and find out what I was doing wrong. But they were, at least, mostly de-interlaced and better-looking that most AMVs made by 12 year olds. So I at least had that going for me.

I've faced two big problems in video editing. First of all, I've been too busy to sit down and make more than one video a year, which means that I essentially have to re-learn everything all over again each time I do. Secondly, I made it a point early on (in 2009) to follow whatever the Everything A/V guide said, only to have a new version suddenly appear in 2010 that offered advice I wasn't sure what to do with. Consider this video, which wasn't in the previous version of the guide:

Can this be taken literally? Following these instructions will IVTC the video and give you video you can bring straight into Premiere (or your editing program of choice), edit with, and then export out what should be a good-enough looking video (that could still be cleaned up and will certainly need to be compressed) that won't require any further deinterlacing?

I've read so much about deinterlacing on the guides and the forums over the past three days that my head is sort of spinning at this point, and I've pretty much forgotten everything I've ever learned about it. Which might be fine, because maybe everything I learned in the first place is out of date by now?

Yet what I get after exporting looks really bad, as if I'd done nothing to deinterlace it at all (and perhaps I actually haven't).

Spoiler :

(the actual details of this are lost for some reason as Imageshack refuses to show the screenshots as full-size, which is about twice as big as what you get here, so just imagine lots more interlacing lines and you'll get the right idea)

I know that's terrible looking and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. It's really sad because I'm a college graduate but I can't wrap my mind around how to make a simple video like this.

There's a whole other load of questions that I have which I might ask later but I guess I'd better just leave it at this for now.

Remember that you also have to export as progressive from your NLE. There is no doubt things are getting IVTC'd with that script, however you also need to set your project file and export settings to match your footage properties if you want everything to be correct.The AVTECH doesn't cover setting project files and export anymore because that widely varies from program to program, so you should just ask in the proper section for your program if you're still having issues.

IVTC is really a simple thing. Most of the time, just a simple TFM().TDecimate() can get you something workable.However, there are LOTS of special cases that can require special handling. But most of the time, those 2 commands are all you really need.

For the record, most of those special cases are also on significantly older content and not modern stuff. There are a few optimised chains that REALLY go nicely on modern DVDs but only older stuff has the really fucked up shit, with a few minor exceptions and Bakemonogatari.

Whoever uses the DVDs of HD shows deserves all the headaches. Seriously, BMG's BDs are progressive and GOOD, so there's no point in getting something that looks worse, has less detail, and is harder to work with.